The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and Korea Tourism Organization will launch seven tourism products using domestic content for foreign visitors. (In The Soop’s official website)
By Park Hye Ri
The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism will launch seven tourism products that include visits to K-drama filming locations and lessons in K-pop dance.
The ministry on April 21 announced plans to turn sites appearing in domestic content into tourist attractions in cooperation with the Korea Tourism Organization. Both entities will also support the development and promotion of seven domestic travel products designed by domestic travel agencies and companies.
The seven include the “In The Soop BTS Ver. PyeongChang Filming Location Tour,” which explores sights in Gangneung and Pyeongchang-gun County, Gangwon-do Province, two locations where BTS filmed its music videos. Afterwards, participants can try at a highway rest stop sotteok sotteok, or sausage and rice cake skewers grilled and sprinkled with spicy seasonings, ketchup or mustard.
The tour “Meeting Hallyu Content and Fascinating History and Culture” will offer a glimpse into both K-dramas and Korean history like the Pocheon Hantangang Milky Way Bridge in Cheorwon-gun County, Gangwon-do, where the hit series “Crash Landing on You” was filmed, plus a taste of Korean-style chicken in Incheon.
Other options include K-pop dance and short-form classes with up-and-coming girl groups and dancers from the popular dance competition show “Street Woman Fighter.” Sightseeing enthusiasts can choose tours of filming locations of hit dramas like “Marry My Husband” around Gyeonggi-do Province and “Castaway Diva” in Seoul and Sangju, Gyeongsangnam-do Province.
Foodies can pick a two-day tour in Pyeongchang-gun sponsored by Samyang Foods.
In a survey of foreign tourists in the fourth quarter of last year, 31.9% of inbound travelers said their interest in visiting Korea grew thanks to prior exposure to Hallyu (Korean Wave). Yet many of them found it difficult to learn how to visit K-drama filming locations and domestic travel companies struggled with copyright issues when using the names of Hallyu stars and works for promotional purposes.
In response, the ministry will aggressively promote selected products at the K-Tourism Roadshow in Hanoi, Vietnam; Manila, the Philippines; Dubai, the United Arab Emirates (UAE); and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Centered on Southeast Asia and the UAE, the top two regions for consumption of Hallyu content per last year’s overseas survey on the Korean Wave, the ministry will focus on product planning and marketing there to get a jump on both markets.
Park Jong Taek, director-general of the ministry’s Tourism Policy Bureau, said, “This project is expected to serve as a catalyst for the development of never-before-seen tourism products through stimulation of collaboration between the travel industry and K-content companies.”
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